The Action Alliance: Public Private Partnership in Action

Background: Almost exactly a year ago in July 2022, the U.S. transitioned to a three-digit number – 988 – as the easy to remember three-digit dialing, texting, and chat code for anyone experiencing a suicidal or mental health related crisis. This opportunity created an urgent need for consistent, coordinated, and accurate messaging.

Program background: The Action Alliance, the nation’s public-private partnership for suicide prevention, worked to surface and respond to a need for messaging alignment about 988 among the field.

Evaluation Methods and Results: With support from private and public-sector partners including the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), the Action Alliance led research identifying significant messaging gaps and opportunities and subsequently developed a framework to equip messengers with general guidance about how to communicate around 988.

Conclusions: A collaborative process produced practical, research-informed tools and resources that partners in the suicide prevention field were able to effectively use to communicate about 988.

Implications for research and/or practice: Public-private partnership can offer a model for communicators seeking to align and coordinate their field.